Aaron Loomis

 John McTavish

Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit has four bands. The primary is red, gold and black and carries the company name and logo. The secondary band is black and gold and denotes the line name. From under the secondary band down to the foot is a sleeve that is black and white and then there is a red ribbon at the foot. After sliding off the sleeve, a medium brown wrapper with lightly raised veins and fine tooth is revealed. The seams are smooth and the caps well applied. The aroma from the wrapper is just a light earthiness while the foot brings a light mix of cedar and earth. The pre-light draw also brings a light mix of cedar and earth.
John: The Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit comes without cellophane, and is double banded along with a red foot band ribbon. The secondary band indicates ‘Devil’s Hand’. Aromas from the wrapper included sweet barnyard, earth, hay and wood. From the foot, there was some mild hay. Closer inspection of the cigar reveals some sponginess in places.

Team Cigar Review: Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with a stale and slightly hollow mix of toasted wood and an earthy mushroom mustiness. At a quarter inch in, a light wood bitterness joins in. The retrohale is toasted wood and light earth. As the third comes to a close, the toasted wood is slightly ahead of the earthy mushroom mustiness with light wood bitterness in the background. The strength was slightly below medium.
John: The first third opens with creamy earth, and a vegetal finish. Some wood and nuts develop on the post draw after just a few puffs. Some mild generic spices are present on the retrohale, and some time later, earth joins the end of the draw, lingering in the post draw. Some dark chocolate is present on the retrohale as the cigar progresses.

Team Cigar Review: Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, some draws don’t have the hollowness while others do. At a half inch in, the earthy mushroom note is now even with the toasted wood up front. The retrohale is now an even mix of toasted wood and earth. As the third comes to a close, the toasted wood is up front with the earthy mushroom mustiness mellowing a bit and some creaminess joining the background with the wood bitterness. The strength remained at slightly below medium.
John: Creamy earth again opens up here, as wood finishes the draw and lingers into the post draw with some sharpness to it. Wood defines the center of the profile as it settles in.

Team Cigar Review: Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the toast level and wood bitterness both increase a bit. At a quarter inch, the earth is now on its own in the middle of the profile while the mushroom mustiness is now in the background. The retrohale is now toasted wood with light earth and mustiness. At three quarters of an inch in, the cigar warms up a bit and the toast is now fairly heavy. As the cigar wraps up, the heavily toasted wood is up front with earth right behind and mushroom mustiness, wood bitterness and creaminess in the background. The strength bumped up to medium.
John: Creamy wood leads the cigar into the last third. Once it has had a chance to settle in, the profile is largely earth forward as it continues.

Team Cigar Review: Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit

Burn

Aaron: The burn line was a bit wavy throughout and went out once in the first third, requiring a re-light.
John: The burn suffered, as the burn was starting to stall out of the gate and fought me through the first third. It went out in the last third, requiring a re-light.

Team Cigar Review: Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit

Draw

Aaron: The draw was slightly tighter than I prefer, but didn’t cause any issues with the smoking experience.
John: The draw was 2 – 3 notches into the resistant spectrum, but opened up somewhat by the halfway point.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with a stale and slightly hollow mix of toasted wood and an earthy mushroom mustiness. A light wood bitterness joined in a bit later. The second third saw some creaminess join in. The final third saw the earth go out on its own while the mushroom mustiness mellowed. The Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit had an average flavor profile throughout that seemed a bit stale and hollow through the first half. I’m not sure this is the intended flavor delivery and I’m hoping the others had a different experience. The flavor wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t engaging and I’ll wait to see how the others describe things to determine if it’s something I’d want to revisit.
John: The Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit was a bit of a miss for me for a number of different reasons. The profile was fairly average, and none of the flavors came together in a way that kept me engaged. In addition, the burn struggled through the review, the draw was resistant and the cigar clearly had construction issues based on the sponginess present throughout. The positive is that the cigar is at a reasonable price point, however based on my experience here, I’d be unlikely to pick up another Devil’s Hand Boolit. Total smoking time was 1 hour and 4 minutes.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.40

Cost/Point

$1.30

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.15

Cost/Point

$1.36

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Esteban Carreras Taken From the Devil’s Hand Boolit